Writer-director Adrian Goiginger’s second feature, a war drama entitled The Fox [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Adrian Goiginger
scheda film], is now in post-production. Goiginger’s well-received debut, The Best of All Worlds [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], won the Compass-Perspektive Award at the 2017 Berlinale as well as five prizes at the 2018 Austrian Film Awards (Best Feature, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor – see the news).

The helmer’s new effort is based on the true story of his great-grandfather, Franz Streitberger, a motorcycle courier for the Austrian Army, who was drafted into the Wehrmacht following the historical events of the Anschluss – namely, the 1938 Nazi annexation of Austria. At the beginning of World War II, the introverted young soldier comes across a wounded fox cub that he looks after as if it were his own child and takes with him to occupied France. Through this unique friendship with the wild animal, his own past as an outcast farmer’s son, which he has always run away from, slowly catches up with him.

The drama’s main cast features Simon Morzé (the TV series Fast Forward and Vienna Crime Squad), Karl Markovics (Resistance [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Leonie Benesch
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scheda film], the TV series Missions). Moreover, the crew includes DoPs Yoshi Heimrath and Paul Sprinz, editor Simon Blasi, production designer Maria Gruber, costume designer Annina Goldfuss, make-up artist Tim Scheidig, composer Arash Safaian, sound designer Herbert Verdino, and animal trainers Herbert Pecher and Fränze Lüttich. The film was shot in the German region of North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as in Lower Austria and Pinzgau.

Speaking about his personal connections with the project, Goiginger told Cineuropa: “This is the true story of my great-grandfather. Born in 1917 in Saalfelden, he experienced the full impact of interwar poverty first-hand. He was the youngest of nine children and lived on a mountain farm in Pinzgau, Austria. But neither famine nor poverty could outweigh what he felt was the worst memory of his childhood: his father abandoning him. A mere seven years old at the time, this experience made him suffer a deep trauma that remained with him until his death aged 99. In 1940, whilst fighting in the World War, he found an abandoned fox puppy and took care of it. They stayed together for over a year, and because of this friendship with a fox, he learned to love again.”

Producers Malte Can and Hana Geißendoerfer added: “Adrian Goiginger’s autobiographical debut, The Best of All Worlds, is an elevated, poetic yet authentic reflection on his dramatic and extraordinary childhood. As a filmmaker, Adrian has established a distinctive style and unique handwriting, which is set to shape his next feature. The Fox will delve even deeper into Adrian’s past to discover a new, incredible chapter of his family history and the changes they faced during the German-Austrian interwar period.”

The Fox is being produced by Hana Geißendoerfer and Malte Can for Germany’s Geißendoerfer Pictures, Gerrit Klein for Germany’s Giganten Film, Peter Wirthensohn and Thomas Pridnig for Austria’s Lotus Film, and Adrian Goiginger and Peter Wildling for Austria’s 2010 Entertainment. The project was backed by ÖFI, FISA - Filmstandort Austria, the Vienna Film Fund, Stadt und Land Salzburg, Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, FFF Bayern, MFG Media and Film Society Baden-Württemberg, BKM and Eurimages. The feature’s world sales have been entrusted to Beta Cinema, whilst Alamode is in charge of its distribution. Its release is slated for the first quarter of 2022.